his side

Spare by Prince Harry

Genre: memoir

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Review: If Prince Harry had to boil this book down into one sentence, I expect it would be, "I will remain devoted to my mother forever, and I despise the paparazzi to the very core of my being."  That would be an accurate description of this book, but it does leave a lot out.

Harry talks about his education (not distinguished), his relationship with his brother and father (alternately loving and heartbreakingly cruel), his time in the military (action-packed), his time spent in Africa and hte charitable work it led to (inspiring), his relationship with his grandmother (close), and much more.

As much as Diana and the paparazzi dominate the book, the writing really comes alive when Harry departs from these topics.  One example is when he talks about the military.  The part that really shines is less his descriptions of his time in war zones, and more his thoughts about what being in the military mean to him, and his frustration that his title prevented him from seeing much action.  The narrative also comes alive when Harry describes meeting and falling in love with Meghan, who, of course, becomes another major theme in the latter half of the book.

But surrounding all that is Harry's loathing of the paparazzi, and he doesn't mince words about it.  He details story after story that come out in the British tabloids (and even some more reputable news outlets) that are just plain lies, recounts his battles with the palace about how to respond to them, and suggests more than once that certain people within the palace are feeing information to the press.  The palace's unwavering police of not responding, even to the tabloid stories that were clearly untrue, and his suspictions about a leak in the inner circle, led to a major breach between Harry and Charles and William.

Of course, we have only Harry's side of the story here, and as Goethe tells us, "One man's word is no man's word; we should quietly hear both sides."  But the palace continues its policy of silence, and it's unlikely that any further developments will happen quietly.  So we have to take Harry's word for it, for now, which is very easy to do after reading this candid memoir.